Psychedelic Coaching
At Sacred Valley Psychedelic Care, we guide individuals in working skillfully and intentionally with psychedelics with a focus on safety and efficacy. This is a phase-based approach tailored to your particular needs.
We are not therapists, healers, or shamans, and we are not here to teach you anything about life. What we do is help you to develop a nurturing relationship with the deeper parts of yourself in order to lead a more psychedelic life: one that is honest, open, creative, and resilient.
Who is this for?
Our coaching can help someone who is looking to:
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Have their first psychedelic experience
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Integrate a previous experience in a meaningful way
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Gain the benefits of a more psychedelic life without taking any drugs
Do you live with a sense of love, joy, and gratitude? Do you have a clear creative vision and the freedom and skill to make it happen? Are you grounded, confident, and peaceful? Do you face your fears head on? Do you let go with grace? Do you express yourself fully? Emotionally? Sexually? Do you dance?
If you answered yes to each of those questions, you are already leading a psychedelic life. If not, let's talk.
Coaching Sessions
This is a collaborative process. We will learn about your background, preferences, and goals, then work with you to find the best path forward. While we are responsible for guiding you in this space, you are responsible for how you choose to engage with the insights that emerge. Meaningful change is ultimately up to you.
Assessment (free)
Before we can offer any guidance, we need to know your history with psychedelics and altered states of consciousness. In a free 20-minute call, we will see where you are in your psychedelic journey, whether or not this is a good fit, and come up with a strategy for working together.
Preparation
For those who are preparing for a psychedelic experience, these sessions will identify the holistic frame, or "set", that you will be bringing into the psychedelic space and that will greatly influence your experience.
Part of this process is a glance in the rear-view mirror. This will include family history, childhood trauma, major life events, and habits and desires that don't seem to go away. We'll also probe into your experience (or lack thereof) with psychedelics and altered states of consciousness. Your history with meditation, yoga, prayer, and psychotherapy is relevant to our work.
Focusing on the present, we will gather tools of mindfulness and cognitive flexibility. These indispensable techniques can provide immediate stress reduction, an increase in emotional awareness, and skill in navigating the psychedelic drug experience. We will also name the resources you already have that are serving you well. This could include friends, disciplines, or healthy habits that are worth leaning on throughout the journey.
Finally, we will focus a clear intention for the future. We'll answer questions like "What do I expect to get out of this?" and "What kind of change would I consider a success?"
One of our favorite tools of preparation is relaxation and awareness-focused bodywork. Learning to swim in the sacred requires letting go, and extended bodywork sessions can be a great practice in this skill. We offer a deep Somatic Elaboration experience which can help increase your connection to your body and your ability to surrender.
Guidance
Once you are well-prepared, we can then help you choose a safe, intentional, and well-supported psychedelic experience. This includes choosing the right setting, the right facilitator, and the right medicine. Good decisions here consider your particular background and should prioritize both physical and psychological safety.
Psychedelic regulation varies widely across global and state lines. Some jurisdictions offer legal, insurance-billable treatments. Others only have underground practices. Though unregulated markets may provide access to skilled practitioners, they do not have stringent ethical guardrails. It is important to know the risks of where you choose to do this work. One question we like to ask ourselves is, "If there is a medical emergency during the session, would they hesitate to take me to a hospital for legal reasons?" The answer should be an unequivocal "no". This is why many choose to travel to Peru or Jamaica, where certain psychedelic plant medicines are legal.
The same level of trust should apply to your facilitator, guide, shaman, or any other title of psychedelic stewardship. They are first and foremost responsible for your physical safety while also providing substantial mental-emotional support. Ideally, they have extensive experience with the drug they work with. If you have any doubts as to their intentions, skill, or integrity, they are not the right one.
As for choosing the right medicine, there are several factors to consider. First, is the drug legal in the setting you intend to have your session? What is its safety profile? What is the typical duration and intensity of the experience? Certain drugs require strict diets in the days or weeks before dosing. Some are contraindicated with medications you may be taking. You would need to either wean off with the help of your doctor or choose a different experience.
Considering the myriad variables surrounding the psychedelic landscape and your particular needs, there are some important decisions to be made so that you can navigate the experience safely. Our international network includes skilled practitioners of several psychedelic medicines and traditions. We are committed to your safety and will help you make the best choices possible.
Support
While "set and setting" has become a known phrase, you don't often hear about the third "s": Support. This is a critical phase of the journey where insights turn into action and where overwhelming content has the time to become meaningful and useful. Psychedelics are not pharmaceutical silver bullets. They require grounded, intentional support to effect positive change.
You may have heard stories of "bad trips" where the person said they would "never touch a psychedelic ever again." Or maybe a friend having their 20th ayahuasca ceremony, coming out glowing, full of hope, but falling back into their old, negative patterns within a few months. In these examples, the transformative potential was wasted due to a lack of support.
Spiritual bypassing and escapism are some of the other pitfalls of psychedelics. Periodic sessions with an experienced coach will keep you accountable to your intentions and honest with the insights you gained during your experience.
Change doesn't just happen*. You don't overcome years of bad habits or generational trauma without commitment and sustained efforts. Recent research has shown that healthy habits need several months to develop.[1] We will strategize ways to help bring the mystical messages from the psychedelic realm into practical, everyday life. In this phase, we try to manifest the new while preventing relapse into the old. This question will always be relevant: "What now?"
*OK, sometimes change just happens with psychedelics,[2] but we can't rely on that 😉
Booking
We offer remote sessions worldwide. In-person coaching is available in Sacred Valley, Peru and periodically while traveling internationally. Sessions are 1-hour. We have a sliding scale fee based on country of residence.
Please send us a message to inquire further.
References
1. ^ "Time to Form a Habit: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Health Behaviour Habit Formation and Its Determinants." Singh, Ben, et al. Healthcare, vol. 12, no. 23, 9 Dec. 2024, p. 2488, https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12232488.
2. ^ "Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-Type Experiences Having Substantial and Sustained Personal Meaning and Spiritual Significance." Griffiths, R. R., et al. Psychopharmacology, vol. 187, no. 3, 2006, pp. 268–292, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-006-0457-5.